A traditional ritual performed by a folk healer using a
white chicken in order to separate an evil spirit from
a person it has possessed and made ill.
The root of the term tagiblag is belag meaning ‘to
separate’. In the ritual, the sickness or evil spirit is
transferred to a white chicken, bokay, which is then
killed. Its blood is thrown out, away from the house in the
direction of the sunset, and the evil spirit goes with it.
Other rituals related to this include the following: To see
if a person has been cursed by a sapat (spirits who live
in the forest), a white chicken is force-fed ginger and then
killed by cutting its neck and draining the blood. The blood
is then examined. In another ritual, the first-laid egg of a
young hen is rubbed over the body of a sick person. Then
the folk healer breaks the egg into a bowl. If there is a
blood spot in the yolk, it means there is still an evil spirit
in the person's body or that they are being made ill by a
witch, mangalok. The healer will then cover the sick
person's bamboo slat floor with badiang leaves so that
when the mangalok returns under the house, it will not
be able to see the sick person. If the person does not get
better, it is believed their liver will be eaten by the
mangalok and they will die. It is not clear what exactly is
done in these rituals since they are seldom performed
these days.